The Night of the Trotters

by Strongbolt Stonewing

Rolling the Dice

The mist was thick, and the moon hung heavily in the sky above Ponyville. The town was dead silent, not a single pony could be seen. The houses were quiet and lifeless, all buildings were desolate except for one: a bakery in the middle of the town shaped like a gigantic cake. The front door swung open and out stepped two ponies, one was a Pegasus colt with a pure white coat, electric black hair and glistening blue eyes, he wore a plain white shirt and the mark of two dice on his flank, his eyes were restless, he seemed wary and alert. He was followed by a mare, a unicorn, with a cream coloured body, long dark green hair and deep cyan eyes. She wore a beautiful white dress with various flower patterns on it, a rose was pinned into her mane. She watched the colt with anticipation, like he was about to do something grand and spectacular, or something grand and spectacular was going to happen to him. The colt disregarded her and kept walking into the night, the mare followed him closely. He heard her hoof-steps behind him and his eyes narrowed. He walked into an alley between two houses.

"Are you following me?" He asked the mare. His voice was fairly masculine, his accent had a slight southern tint.

"Yes." The mare said bluntly. Her voice was younger than the colt's, she spoke clearly, with a more posh accent.

"Can I ask why?" The colt demanded.

"I'm waiting." She said innocently, as if those two words completely explained the situation.

The colt looked at her for a moment, he scowled. "Who are you?"

"My name is Laurocerasus. You may call me Laura." She spoke proudly.

"Oh, may I?" He imitated her accent.

"This is where you tell me your name." She insisted.

The colt studied her. "Dice." He said slowly. "My name is Dice. What's it to you anyway?"

"I have heard a lot about you." Laura said blankly.

"So why did you ask my name?" Dice questioned.

"I had to be sure it was you. It would be awfully embarrassing if I had found the wrong pony."

Dice just stared at her. His eyes narrowed even more. "Who are you?" He asked again.

"I have told you, my name is Laura. That is all there is."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm waiting."

Dice put his head in his hoof. "What does that mean?"

Laura glanced upwards. "The moon." Laura said quietly.

"What about it?" Dice asked.

"It has not moved." Both ponies looked up.

"Do you hear that?" Dice looked around, a soft sound brushed his ear. "Is somepony... moaning?" Laura stood motionless. Staring at a figure underneath a flickering streetlight. Dice followed her gaze.

"Hello?" Laura called. The figure turned, it was a young colt, he twitched and began moving towards them. The closer he stepped the louder his groaning became.

"Take it easy there, buddy." Dice said. The colt opened his mouth, his teeth were red. His eyes were blank. He did not stop moving.

"Dice." Laura said briskly. "Run."

The colt did not stop, it lunged at Dice who swatted him to the side. The colt got up as though it had felt nothing, it charged again. That time, Dice ran. Laura was already ahead of him.

"Who the hell is that?" He yelled. Laura did not reply.

The colt trotted slowly behind them, more ponies joined him, they all followed Dice. Laura turned a corner and ran to the nearest house. She opened the door and disappeared inside. Dice followed her and slammed the door behind him, then he locked it and took a deep breath. He now stood alone in a dark house, the power seemed to have gone out. There were no other ponies that he could see, Laura was gone.

"Hello?" Dice called. No answer. He backed away from the door and investigated his surroundings. He was in a dusty corridor, on the left was a door that led to a kitchen, and on the right, a door leading to a lounge, straight in front of him was a staircase leading to the second floor. He slowly walked into the kitchen, his eyes shot from left to right, his heart was racing. The kitchen was also empty, a fridge door hung wide open, emitting a faint white light that shone ominously across the rest of the room. On a table in the centre was an unfinished plate of dried hay. Dice came to a conclusion: whoever was here last left quickly. Suddenly a noise came from the lounge, Dice shot around to see a radio happily playing music in between layers of static. He carefully stepped over to it and turned it off. The lounge, like the kitchen, was empty. Someone had spilt something over the sofa, a cup lay on its side on the floor. There was a large wooden cabinet occupying half of one of the walls. A rumbling noise could be heard from within it. Dice picked up the nearest blunt object he could find, a vase, and creeped towards the cabinet. He reached for the handle and pulled it back quickly. Another Pegasus with a light grey coat and yellow hair fell out.

"Gah!" Dice jumped back.

The Pegasus lay upside down, her eyes were crossed, neither looked in the same direction. For a moment, Dice assumed she was dead, until she spoke.

"Hey, do you have any food?" She looked around.

"Woah, you're alive?" He exclaimed.

"Nope, I'm hungry." The mare said, her voice was slightly lower and slower than the average pony's. "Do you have any food?"

"What? Food? No! Who are you?"

The mare spun around and got up. "I'm, uh, Ditz... Dink... wait, I know! Derpy, that's it, that's my name." She said proudly.

"Are you... okay?" Dice asked.

"Nope, I'm hungry." Derpy repeated.

"Look we'll get you food later. Right now I need you to tell me what happened here. Is this your house?"

Derpy looked around, her eyes never focused on anything, they both looked in different directions. "Nope." She said at last.

"What were you doing in that cabinet?"

"I thought I smelt food coming from this room, or was it the other room? I don't know. Do you have any food?"

"Oh for crying out loud... follow me." He led her to the kitchen.

She looked around. "Oh! Yeah, this is where the food is." She stuck her head in the fridge and began eating. Dice just watched, he was incredibly confused.

"Did you see any other ponies?" Dice asked.

Derpy stopped, she emerged from the fridge. "Okay, I'm good."

"Excuse me? I said did you see any other ponies?"

"Oh, um, nope."

"Remind me again what you were doing here."

"I was looking for food."

"Why here?"

"Oh," she looked around, "this isn't my house."

Dice stood open mouthed, he had not been in Ponyville for long, but he was sure that most of the residents did not act like this. Derpy reversed out of the fridge and hit the table, one of the plates fell off and hit the floor, it smashed and gave off a loud crack. Suddenly, there was activity outside again, more ponies moaning and groaning, there must have been at least ten or twenty. Dice gritted his teeth, they were surrounding the house, banging on the walls and windows.

"We have to move. Do you understand?" Dice whispered urgently.

"I used to move." Derpy said proudly, her mouth twisted into a frown. "The company fired me. I think I dropped a piano."

What Derpy was saying made no sense to Dice, but they had to leave, he grabbed her by the wing and pulled her back into the corridor, a hoof smashed through the front door and the moaning grew louder.

"I think somepony is at the door." Derpy said.

Dice ran up the stairs, and oddly enough, Derpy followed. The upstairs rooms were dusty and colourless, cobwebs hung in every corner. There was another smash from downstairs, Dice looked down to see another hoof break through. He looked around frantically, he needed something to defend himself. His eyes rested on a barrel.

"Derpy! Help me move this." He yelled.

Derpy agreed and grabbed the barrel, together they pushed it to the top of the stairs, by which time a third and fourth hoof had already broken in. The door creaked one last time and collapsed inwards into the house. Dozens of ponies with blank, white eyes and pale coats staggered in. Many were covered in blood, some had limbs missing.

"We push on three!" Dice said anxiously. "One, two..."

"Yay!" Derpy screamed as she jumped into the barrel. She nudged it off of the stairs and sent it tumbling down, it crashed into the ponies, pushing them back or flattening them. The barrel stopped at the doorway, more of the ponies tried to fit through, they started to hit the barrel.

"I said on three! Oh, whatever! That barrel won't hold them back for long. We have to find another way out of here!" Dice was not sure if Derpy understood, however, she looked at him like she somewhat knew what he was talking about. She nodded grimly and began searching around the room. Dice walked into another room with an armchair and a few old faded photos in it, he spotted a window, just large enough to fit a pony through, he ran to it, but it would not budge. He slammed himself into it.

"Tried already, it does not look like it is going to open." Said a voice. Dice spun around, Laura sat in the armchair.

"You!" He hissed. "Where did you go?"

"I waited, in here." She said innocently. "Glad to know you cared."

Dice stared at her. "Listen, I don't care what manner of pony you are, even if you make no sense. We need all the help we can get. Those things are going to rip us apart!" He pointed his hoof at the stairs.

"You know, those 'things' were ponies once."

"Well they ain't anymore, that's for sure."

"True." Laura walked to the window, there was a lock covered in dust attached onto the handle. "We will need a key."

There was a scream from another room. Dice ran into the hallway and into the next door, Laura appeared behind him. They were in a filly's bedroom, the wallpaper was a dank pink, the room was full of various dolls and toys positioned on every available surface. Derpy stood silently, staring at the body of a young mare laying on a bed frame. Underneath the mare's hoof was a key.

"I think I found the key." Dice muttered. Derpy backed away behind Dice and stood next to Laura.

Laura stuck out her hoof. "I am Laurocerasus. You may call me Laura."

Derpy took her hoof with her own. "I am Derpy. You may call me Derpocerasus."

"I like this pony." Laura laughed.

"Sh!" Dice murmured. He slid the key out from underneath the mare's hoof and caught it in his own. He showed it to Laura and Derpy and grinned. They both looked past him at the body, which was now groaning and getting up. The mare opened her eyes, they were blank like the others', she opened her mouth and growled. When she finally got to her hooves, Dice could see part of her stomach missing, her rib cage was exposed. The mare stared at them, then twitched and charged. All three living ponies jumped out of the door and slammed it behind them. Dice pulled a cabinet over and blocked the door, the sound of a pony smacking her hooves on wood could be heard from inside. Louder groans came from the stairs, Dice spotted two ponies ascending slowly.

"They broke the barrel!" He yelled.

Laura and Derpy ran back to the original room, Dice threw the key to Laura and began swatting the ponies away with a broken chair leg. The ponies enclosed on him quickly, they were forcing him to back up into the room. Laura thrust the key into the padlock and twisted it. It clicked and fell off, She pulled open the window and grabbed Derpy then jumped through. Dice followed afterwards, narrowly avoiding a bite. They landed on the roof of a shed, Dice closed the window behind them. The ponies flooded out of the house and surrounded them.

"This seemed like a much better plan when we were in there." Laura admitted.

All three ponies watched tensely as the hordes of dead ponies swarmed them.